AT the beginning of the year the governing body, the NRL, made a brave decision to depart from years of tradition by in essence removing the possibility of a drawn game in both the premiership competition and the showpiece of the game, the State of Origin. This decision was brought to a head by the most recent series of the State of Origin in which the title of the champion was given to Queensland. This was decided by virtue of the fact that they were defending champions with the series was effectively tied one all. The decider, as it was billed had turned out to decide nothing with the Queensland side scoring late in the game to force a draw. This result was seen to be unfair by many south of the border and due to the fact that this was not the first occurrence, a solution needed to be found. The decision was made to introduce golden-point extra-time in which the first team to score in the extra time periods was crowned the winner of the contest. However, this was not an exclusive decision to the State of Origin, the premiership would perform under these rules as well for all of their premiership matches.

THE Round starts with a bottom of the table clash featuring the Newcastle Knights and North Sydney Bears. Newcastle comes off a win against Manly while the Bears lost narrowly to the Sharks. The Knights won?t expect to be as strong as last weekend though with their front row pair Kennedy and Tanner in first grade this week.

HIBISCUS Coast Raiders, Canterbury Bulls, Mt Albert Lions, Marist Richmond Brothers and Eastern Tornadoes make up the top five in this year's Bartercard Cup competition in New Zealand. The jostling for positions on the ladder for the Top 5 will continue for the remaining rounds.

IN Bull's Eye this week, Brian Noble and second row forward Jamie Peacock look ahead to tomorrow night's Teteley's Super League Round 22 game at Headingly when the Bulls travel to meet the Rhinos in the biggest game of all. First and second go head to head!